Research
by sunnyuptnorth
Summary: Dean discovers exactly what Cas and his 'old friend from back home' want to research.


A thump, muffled giggles.

The chink of a glass beer bottle landing on wooden boards and the tinkle as it was kicked away.

God-damn but Dean hated these skanky motels, especially now he had his own bed, in his own room, back at the bunker, that he would have been sleeping comfortably in if Sam had just let him drive through the night. But oh no, that would be reckless, unnecessary, blah blah blah. Dean knew he was pulling a quality bitch face and decided it could stay there, hell, these days it seemed to be his permanent expression.

Taking a deep breath and starting a count of 10 (one of Sam's bullshit 'anger management' initiatives), Dean had got to just 3 when there was another scuffle, followed by hoarse whispers and giggles again. A burp. Oh great, classy. Now he was gonna have to start the count again, or get up and find another drink, which sounded the better option now he was awake.

Dean opened his eyes to the never-quite-dark-enough room where he could see the rough outline of Sam's body on the other bed over by the wall, breathing deeply and evenly. Bastard. How he managed to stay alive on hunts without Dean, he would never know, he slept like the dead most of the time.

Making more fuss than strictly necessary, and muttering under his breath about inconsiderate assholes, Dean rolled over to face the door and window. Through the threadbare curtains, he could make out the shape of a group of people backlit by the walkway lights, Dean's hunters instincts telling him there were 3 of them. The whispering stopped, they separated out into a line and started to tip-toe like goddamn cartoon characters, the last in the line was much shorter than the other 2. They moved out of the view of the window before someone stumbled into the wall directly outside Dean's room, to the sound of renewed laughter and drunken shushes.

Dean, his hunters instinct for survival ingrained shot up to sit on the edge of the bed, knife in hand from where it had been stored under his pillow. Blinking a couple of times, realising it was not something evil trying to break in, Dean swore loudly and rubbed his eyes. Sam stirred in the bed behind him mumbling "wha..?"

Turning his head slightly, not bothering to pitch his voice low, and if it woke Sam up fully, well, then at least Dean wouldn't have to suffer being awake and alone in this dump with no drink in sight "Nothing, go back to sleep, Sam. Just the lucky son-of-a-bitch next door, getting some threeway action" and muttering more quietly under his breath "Lucky bastard".

There was a pause from Sam's bed before he rolled over slightly to meet Dean's eye in the low light. "We're on the end Dean. The only room next to us is Cas's…." Sam paused, before a huge grin plastered over his face "so that was what he meant by research! Ha ha, good lad" still smiling Sam rolled back over to face the wall again, chuckling to himself. Settling himself back under the covers like a nesting puppy, Sam continued sleepily "he texted earlier to say he'd met an old friend, and that they were off to do some research" the grin still obvious in his voice. "I did tell you earlier, dumbass…."

In a lull in the brothers conversation there came the sound of a key being scraped over the next room's door, clearly the idiot couldn't find the key hole. More scraping and laughter before finally, the door must have opened and they all piled through at once to the sound of more hysterics.

Dean stood up, but realising he still held his knife in his right hand, he slammed it down onto the night stand and started to tug on his boots.

"don't you DARE Dean" rumbled Sam, "I mean it, if you go in there and break up his party, I will punch your lights out, and you know I still can". Sam rolled over again with a huff, heavy sarcasm tainting his words "he's just following your shining example Dean. You know, finish a hunt, get wasted, find someone to fuck. Can you blame him?"

Sam chuckled "and dude, you've got to give him credit" he grinned "not just pulling one, but two in this crappy town!" Scowling round and down at his little brother, Dean carried on putting his boots on. "Cas is clearly wasted, so isn't capable of making such choices Sam, this old friend is clearly a bad influence" Dean carried on speaking louder over the you-fucking-hypocrite noises from the other bed "AND anyway, the chicks in that bar looked like they'd rob you and leave an STD calling card" Sam chuckled but Dean could see he was pulling his old-maid face at Dean before replying "what makes you think they're both chicks anyway, he did say he was off to do some research" and with a huff and a "leave him ALONE Dean" he lay down again in a blatant attempt at shutting the conversation down.

Dean had paused whilst he took in the information from Sam about Cas and his 'research', it would explain the size difference between the people he'd seen through the window. He knew he should just leave the former angel alone, let him make his own mistakes, for gods sake, he was a grown man! Sighing, Dean continued to put his boots on. Who was he kidding, after seeing a future version of Cas, Dean had watched the angel for any signs he might start heading down that route now that Cas had lost his grace and was all too human. He still remembered the look of horror on everyone's face after the last wendigo hunt when Cas politely accepted a joint that was being passed around by the local hunters and Dean literally jumped across the campfire to snatch it out of his hand. Dean didn't want to watch his angel as he started on his road to "banging a few gongs before the lights went out". So Dean intercepted every encounter Cas had with drugs and tried to steer him towards nice looking girls, like librarians or accountants. He had a grudging admiration for the former angel though, when he liked something, he really liked it, and that encounter with April obviously had him focussed on sex now instead of burgers. To go straight from sex101 to a threeway was impressive, not that he'd let on to Sam. One of them had to come across as a responsible adult.

Dean cleared his throat before pitching his voice in what he hoped was a reasonable tone "Sam, I am just going to go and check to make sure he's ok and has more than his angel blade for protection this time, I'll be back in 5 minutes tops" Dean heard a humpff from Sam's bed, could practically see him frown through the back of his head, and was outside before Sam could form a decent argument for him to stay.


End file.
